David Moyes achieved a great deal at West Ham and, at times, had the Hammers playing beautiful football, so it wasn’t necessarily a universally popular move when the club decided to move on from the Premier League veteran at the end of the 2023/24 season.
West Ham, in truth, were horrible in the second half of the campaign, so you can understand why many fans grew impatient with the combination of poor results and putrid play on the pitch.
Unfortunately for West Ham, they are probably regretting the decision, and even if firing Moyes at the time was the right choice, it’s clear that they replaced him with the wrong guy.
Julen Lopetegui has taken West Ham several steps back so far in 2024/25, and the Hammers have become completely unwatchable despite having a talented squad after a strong summer of investment.
Although he had one great season with Sevilla in 2021/22 in which he contended for the title against Real Madrid, Lopetegui’s track record in every other campaign is underwhelming, especially his work with Wolves and Madrid themselves.
The rumors of his dismissal are reaching a crescendo, and Fabrizio Romano is the most recent top insider to weigh in, writing that the Hammers’ embarrassing 3-0 defeat to risers Nottingham Forest has put the Spanish coach “on the brink” of being fired.
Interestingly enough, Fab says the top candidate to replace Lopetegui is Edin Terzic, who won the DFB Pokal with Borussia Dortmund in the 2020/21 season as an interim manager, replacing current RB Leipzig manager Marco Rose, before reaching the Champions League Final last season.
Terzic was dismissed by Dortmund, though, for squabbling with club legends Mats Hummels and Marco Reus, as well as taking BVB completely out of Bundesliga title contention.
Given Dortmund have been worse so far in the 2024/25 season despite signing a trio of big names from other Bundesliga clubs, it’s fair to wonder if firing Terzic was helpful in any way.
Terzic has some popularity among fans in world football after being a cult hero for Dortmund, but since he hasn’t achieved any sort of sustained success and did have detractors from players who are easy to get along with, he would be a very high-risk manager for West Ham despite obviously having superior tactical ideas to the flailing Lopetegui.
